Warriors of Peace

We are a country at war.  Not with ISIS, terrorists, or other outside threats.  No, we are a country at war with ourselves.  We have police officers shooting innocent black men and women for what reason I don’t know.  Did they really perceive a threat?  Are they racists?  The reasons escape me, but then again the reasons for senseless killing always escape me because I work hard to believe the best of other people.

The people of Dallas had the right idea last night.  They gathered peacefully to protest a series of senseless shootings by white men who have no right to wear a police uniform.  They gathered together to raise their voices and call for peace.  The most telling photographs of the day show police officers of all races smiling and posing for pictures with the people they are sworn to serve.

In a decision that may have cost them some of their ranks their lives, these officers were not dressed in riot gear with kevlar vests and helmets, but in uniforms.  In the spirit of the rally, this was a gathering of peace and not war.  Unfortunately, a sniper chose to turn this peaceful rally into a killing field.

I call upon you, my fellow Americans, to follow the example of the everyday citizens of Dallas and to be warriors of peace.  Call for stricter standards for police officers so that racist murderers no longer roam the streets shielded in blue.  Demand stronger gun control so that wackos with guns can not kill innocent police officers.  And more simply, take time to get to know your neighbors.

We live in fearful times and during fearful times it is all too often to believe that we need to strike first to avoid being injured or maimed.  Our inborn fear response demands that we fight, flight, or freeze and all too often we choose fight before we have all the facts.  Our fear response is often triggered by the “other,” by the people who don’t look like us or live like us.  We barricade ourselves in our homes or neighborhoods and hope that the “other” won’t invade our turf or we decide to kill them before they kill us.

Neither response will end this war.  To end this war we need to legislate guns instead of morality.  We need to raise our voices together as one people and say ENOUGH.  We need to not let what happened in Dallas stop us from being peaceful warriors and we need to use love and legislation to end the killing.